The Governor's consent, which came on Thursday, has stayed the act in its entirety, paving the way for the admissions as per the old pattern to about 60,000 seats in the state.

Catholic schools, represented by the Archdiocesan Board of Education (ABE), had expressed strong opposition to the Pre-Primary Act. Spokesperson for the Archbishop's House, Bishop Oswald Gracias, however, told Express Newsline refused to comment till they studied the text of the ordinance.

Various sections of the Act had nettled the ABE, which stonewalled admissions to about 60,000 seats, ever since the Pre-School Bill was drafted in 1996. The board felt the Pre-PrimaryAct, passedby the state Assembly in April 1997, compromised the community's minority rights in administering their educational institutions.

The neighbourhood policy (in Section 5) restricted the institutions' freedom to select candidates to just 20 per cent of seats. It said schools would have to allot 80 per cent of their seats to candidates in their neighbourhood, though its precise area would be left to the discretion of the institutions' managements. The Act also barred interviews of candidates and their parents. Though there had been some voices of dissent among other types of minority schools as well, it was mainly the Catholic institutions that suspended the admission procedure till the state government stay the Act by issuing an ordinance among other options.